NFA's Fields is Varsity845 boys' basketball player of year

As soon as the showdown was set, Kingston vs. Newburgh Free Academy for the Section 9 Class AA championship, Donovan Fields became a point guard possessed.

JUSTIN RODRIGUEZ

As soon as the showdown was set, Kingston vs. Newburgh Free Academy for the Section 9 Class AA championship, Donovan Fields became a point guard possessed.

Fields tracked down his teammates in the halls at school, reminding them how much the game meant to him, and how badly he wanted it. They heard the same passionate refrain from Fields during practice, and he kept peppering them until Newburgh emerged from its locker room at SUNY New Paltz.

And what did Fields do to back up all of his talking?

Just put up the game of his life. Fields' career-high 36 points led Newburgh to its first Class AA title in three years.

"I just wanted it so bad," said Fields, the Varsity845 Player of the Year. "I waited three years for this and I had to motivate my team to win."

Here's the thing about Fields. He isn't a rah-rah player. His pregame Kingston pep talks weren't loud and look-at-me.

They were measured and focused. Fields' teammates couldn't help but respect and respond to him. His game is electric: Fields can drive, shoot, run the floor and comes equipped with electric ball-handling moves.

However, how he carries himself is even more impressive. Fields is competitive and confident, but he's also soft-spoken. He sliced double-team after double-team against Kingston, scoring on drives and jumpers, seemingly whenever Kingston needed a basket most.

Seasoned Kingston coach Ron Kelder was befuddled by Fields' show, but at the same time impressed. After the game in Kingston's locker room, Kelder told his team that they just got beat by a class act. His devastated charges nodded their heads in agreement, Kelder said.

"Don Fields is an absolute class act," Kelder said. "That kid single-handily carried that team. He's the target of every scouting report and still produces. Not many kids can handle the pressure to perform like Don does. He's a classy kid and has really matured like a high school kid should."

For Fields, a straight-A student, playing the role of gentleman comes as easy as lighting up an opponent. He gives credit to his parents, Mike and Evelyn, for his demeanor and personality. Mike and Evelyn Fields met when they were living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in their early 20s and moved to Orange County in 1992.

Mike Fields is in law enforcement and his wife is a youth-services coordinator in Orange County.

"To hear people say Donovan is a good guy, a class act, I'm very proud," Mike Fields said. "It means a lot to me. We were big on being a character person, being a good guy, truthful, being loyal. Donovan has done everything we asked of him and we never twisted his arm. He's always done the things that are expected of him."

Donovan Fields the competitor was born when his father began coaching with the AAU outfit the Newburgh Zion Lions. At age 4, Fields began playing with older and more experienced players, at the urging of his father and Zion Lions director Harold Rayford. That was the trend as Fields developed into the player he is with the Zion Lions.

He made his debut for Newburgh as a sophomore and broke out. However, the Goldbacks lost in the Class AA playoff semifinals to Middletown. A year later, Kingston blew out Newburgh in the Class AA semifinals.

There was more heartbreak for Fields this fall as Newburgh's starting quarterback. Despite playing one of the best games of his life, rushing for 160 yards and two touchdowns, the Goldbacks gave up a late lead in a 31-30 loss to rival Monroe-Woodbury in the Section 9 Class AA championship.

Fields used all those losses as fuel, channeling his emotions, zeroing in on this basketball season. He had to have a Section 9 championship. Not just for him, but for his teammates and third-year Newburgh coach Matt Brown, whom Fields has played for since he was a freshman on jayvee.

Knowing the kind of player and, more importantly, the person that he is, it seems fitting that Fields willed his team to the Class AA championship in his last run playing the role of passionate point guard.